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Rick Santorum led from start to finish in Saturday's Kansas presidential caucuses, winning all but one county and claiming 33 of the state's 40 delegates.

"Santorum is cleaning up," Kansas Republican Party executive director Clay Barker said 90 minutes into the vote count. "He has about three or four times more than anyone else."

When all of the votes were tallied, Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, had about 51 percent, far outpacing Mitt Romney, who had about 21 percent. Newt Gingrich had about 14 percent, and Ron Paul trailed with about 13 percent.

All Kansas counties went for Santorum except Lane. That western Kansas county sided with Romney, who was awarded the state's remaining seven delegates.

Santorum earned the votes of just over half of the 1,708 Shawnee County Republicans who turned out for Saturday's caucus at the Ramada Hotel and Convention Center, spurred by an unusually close primary race and the shared desire to see President Barack Obama out of office. Romney got 23.7 percent of the county's vote, followed by Paul (14.6 percent) and Gingrich (10.8 percent).

“Turnout is dependent on people’s passions,” said Gov. Sam Brownback, who returned from Wichita to vote at the Ramada shortly after noon. “I think passion is pretty high, and it’s going to stay high through the fall (and the general election).”

Brownback, who hasn’t endorsed a candidate since Texas Gov. Rick Perry suspended his campaign, declined to say who he was voting for.

He said he would consider making an endorsement after reviewing the caucus results, but he has held off in the hopes of encouraging the candidates to visit the state.

“Normally (the primary) is decided by the time it gets here,” he said. “This year we’re significant. We matter.”

Santorum was widely considered to have the inside track on earning the biggest share of Kansas delegates heading into the caucuses. But Paul’s supporters made the most passionate case in Shawnee County.

Angela Davis, Paul’s county chairwoman, spoke of his commitment to limiting federal government and international military interventions with an almost spiritual fervor, and she had to stop after nearly every sentence for raucous applause.

“It’s about so much more than just the man,” Davis said after the speeches ended and the voting began. “There’s an entire movement. I call it the liberty movement.”

But while Paul’s supporters exhibited unswerving devotion, their ability to sway others was hampered by a foreign policy philosophy that is in stark contrast to Republicans who favor military action in places like Iran and Syria.

After she voted Saturday, Arliss Douglass, of Topeka, said she can’t get behind Paul because she is afraid he would “get rid of our military.”

“I just hope and pray Santorum gets it, and I’d sure like to see Newt as vice president,” Douglass said. “I think that’s the only two that can beat the villain we have in there now.”

Romney’s advocate, William Osborn, argued that the former Massachusetts governor is the best man for that job. Osborn said the economy is in dire need of a turnaround and Romney’s record as a businessman shows he is a “turnaround artist.”

Osborn also said Romney, the national front-runner, is the only candidate who can organize well enough and raise enough funds to overcome Obama’s campaign machine.

“It’s time for us Republicans to consolidate behind a candidate who can win,” Osborn said.

But enthusiasm for Romney and Gingrich seemed to lag after neither campaigned in the state in person.

Travis Couture-Lovelady, Gingrich’s spokesman, said the former House speaker canceled a series of appearances throughout Kansas this week to gear up for events in Mississippi and Alabama as part of his “Southern strategy.”

“He sent his daughter, and he sent other good surrogates,” Couture-Lovelady said. “We have a good ground game here, and we’ve been working on it awhile, so I think he was convinced he could still do well.”

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However, the turnout numbers are dismal. CNN just updated with 97% of the vote and the total votes for the four candidates comes to 19,243 for the STATE. That's pitiful. In 2008 Shawnee County Democrats had to have three caucus locations to accommodate the expected turnout and it was still a total mob scene. I was at Topeka West HS and the gym was at capacity.

A decisive Santorum victory tells much about the activist base of the Kansas Republican Party, and how little that group reflects Kansas values. Santorum represents theocracy and even more government regulation in the bedroom, not to mention women's bodies. These people have had an inflated influence on recent elections due to poor turnout. That's one of the reasons you see all the new (Kobach) regulations that discourage rather than encourages turnout and registration. It's time for reasonable people to take back the reigns of Kansas government. Turn out and be heard in 2012!

well I was a democrat now unaffiliated, changed around 10 year ago and I thank God for it , I think like Patton if I found myself between far right and far left I'd shoot in both directions !! But I do vote GOP !! Lesser of two evils

With Fred and Sam, it's embarrassing enough being from Kansas...Santorum people really? Not as a R you have a lot of great choices, but his name ought to be Satan-orum. I hope all the women and poor rejoice when even more of their rights are taken away.

HOW does a Democrat get elected in Kansas when there are less than 9,000 of them in the whole state?!

I'm serious. As soon as Sibelius was elected the boards here were dripping in hatred for her.

Okay... maybe it's the Unaffiliated. But when they are only approx 250,000, the question still remains, HOW does a Democrat get elected here at all? I can see those few counties with more Dems having a representative from there.

It occurs to me that almost all of the Democrats must live in those few counties and Shawnee isn't one of them.

It suddenly dawned on me why my daughter told me she's afraid to ride in my truck with me because I have an Obama sticker on it. She said I need bulletproof windows. I laughed. But I may be one of a dozen Topekans who are Democrat.

AND that also explains why I got such a stunned look when I moved here in 1976 and went to register as a Democrat. I had no idea I was that special.

Of the state’s 105 counties, only five have more registered Democrats than Republicans: Atchison, Cherokee, Crawford, Douglas and Wyandotte."

And I read the Libertarian number for the Democrat number.

That's less shocking. Thanks.

So, if you add Unaffiliated to Democrats you CAN vote for a Democrat to be governor.

And in fact you can have a total vote in Kansas for Obama. But that would be harder because cultural differences get in the way, even with the Unaffiliated. And, in fact, I wonder if that is not the major difference in Unaffiliated in Kansas and Democrat in Kansas - cultural.

Someone needs to do some research on that if they have not already done it. I'd like to know what specific reasons an Unaffiliated is not either Democrat or Republican.

Gee! I remember a Governer from Kansas that was a DEMOCRAT. I think her name was Kathleen SEBELIUS. You know, the one that doesn't care what the Constitution says. The one who in the future will be telling you, just what health care you can use, and how often you will be allowed to use it. The same one that now is stopping funding of Texas health programs that serve 130,000 low income people, just because Texas won't play ball with her the way she wants , and she thinks she has figured out a way to force them too. Just like she is trying to force all religious institutions to do things her way, or pay the price.

Santorum if he get's the Nomination, ( and can stay on message ) could pose a real problem for Obama. Santorum is not an Idiot. Obama is gonna have to get some real friendly Debate moderators to jumble up the debate with questions about Dead baby's that go home to see the sibling's and ,,thirty year old law students lacking birth control. Oh and" why do you hate women.?" will be the ultimate Question. Beside Santorum served in a heavily union Democratic state. Much longer than Obama served in the Senate OR as president. But don't you worry. We Know that a lot of Dem's will secretly vote for Romney.

How does Kansas elect Democratic Governors? Should be more accurately put as WHEN does Kansas elect Democratic Governors. Happens every time 1] the GOP nominates a right wing nutcase [Shallenburger] as their gubernatorial candidate, and /or 2] the incumbent GOP governor gets such a bad case of the "I got dis sukka in da BAG" ego dysfunction [Bennett and Hayden come to mind] that they get their butts kicked!

Heck, Lucy, back in 2002 there were REPUBLICANS that voted for Kathleen in DROVES!